This invention relates generally to the field of manufacturing and dispensing pharmaceuticals, and more particularly to an improved method for manufacturing freeze dried pharmaceutical tablets in disposable single dose aluminum blister packs.
In recent years, pharmaceutical producers have turned to the use of blister packs for use in both the forming and dispensing of pharmaceutical tablets. These blister packs generally consist of a blister sheet or blister film and a lidding sheet. The blister sheet contains depressions for containing individual dosages. In a standard process for manufacturing freeze dried tablets, a single dosage, in liquid form, is introduced into each depression of the blister sheet. The blister sheet, along with the liquid dosages, is then placed into a refrigerated environment where the dosages are subjected to low temperatures to freeze them. The blister sheets are then transferred to a freeze drier, where the ice is removed by sublimation. When freeze drying is completed, the sheets are removed from the drying chamber and covered with an adhesive lidding sheet, which seals the solid dosages into their individual depressions. United States Patent No. 4,305,502 is incorporated herein by reference as teaching, inter alia, a known process for manufacturing freeze dried tablets.
However, blister sheets that have heretofore been used in freezing and freeze drying processes have suffered from several deficiencies. First, the blister sheets have typically been made of a polymeric substance, which, over time, can allow moisture to permeate the blister pack and reach the dosages stored inside. To solve this problem, blister sheets have been developed in which a layer of aluminum is laminated between layers of polymer. While the presence of the aluminum layer prevents moisture from permeating the blister pack, it leads to a second problem. Namely, when subjected to temperature changes during the freezing process, conventional aluminum/polymer laminates tend to curl up, due to the differences in the degree of thermal expansion or contraction of the opposing layers of the laminate. This makes their use in freezing processes difficult, since liquid product can easily spill from the formed depressions or can lie unevenly in the depressions during filling and freezing operations. Furthermore, the curling of the blister sheet can cause dosages to freeze or sublimate unevenly, since some depressions may not be in physical contact with the cold surfaces of the refrigerator or freeze drier. The only solution has been to use weights on the edges of the laminate strips to hold them sufficiently flat. Such measures are not practical in large scale manufacturing operations, and can interfere with the freezing process.
A need therefore exists for a method of utilizing a high barrier aluminum laminate in the manufacture of freeze dried dosage forms that avoids the problem of curling of the blister sheet.